Man guilty in fatal beating of boy on his 4th birthday

Steve SchmadekeTribune reporter

A Cook County jury convicted a mother's boyfriend Monday in the beating death of her 4-year-old child less than two hours after a prosecutor described the murder as a "sadistic sport" for the boyfriend and mom.

Cesar Ruiz, 36, who had demonstrated for jurors last week how he earlier used makeup to conceal bruises on Christopher Valdez's face, shook his head and exhaled as his guilt on one count of first-degree murder was read at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

The boy's mother, Chrystal Valdez, is still awaiting trial.

An autopsy found 54 bruises and scrapes on the malnourished boy's body, stretching from his buttocks to the top of his head. He was found dead on his 4th birthday, a day after Thanksgiving 2011.

Prosecutors said Ruiz beat the 26-pound boy and slammed him into a wall at their home on Chicago's Southwest Side. Police said he admitted to them that he had struck the boy and "lost control" the night before Christopher was found dead.

Three months before the boy's death, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services found that allegations of abuse were "unfounded" even though his mother had confessed to police that she had beaten her son and was still facing criminal charges. The boy was allowed to stay in their home.

Cook County Public Guardian Robert Harris, whose office is responsible for youths in state care, told the Tribune after Christopher's death that it was "absolutely insane what occurred in this case."

On Thanksgiving 2011, relatives noticed that Christopher was wearing a sweatshirt with the hood up, vomiting and not touching his food. Relatives burst into the couple's home the next day and found Christopher rolled up in a blanket and dead. An uncle began hitting Christopher's mother and then struck Ruiz, who had said, "I'm sorry" and "It was an accident," prosecutors said.

Ruiz took the stand last week and told jurors he took the boy home from the holiday party but never beat him.

Ruiz's attorney, Matthew McQuaid, said his client had stayed too long in a bad relationship but did not kill the boy.

But prosecutors argued that Ruiz was a coldblooded killer who never shed a tear when horrific photos of the injuries inflicted on the boy were shown in court.

"He's the worst kind of murderer, the kind that picks a 4-year-old boy to be his punching bag," Assistant State's Attorney Lisa Longo said in her closing argument.